Space Adventures Partners with Armadillo

I can't understate the significance of this announcement.

I mentioned a couple years ago that Space Adventures, the provider of tourist flights to the International Space Station, were advertising that they were planning on providing suborbital tourist flights at $102,000 per ticket. I stated this because that's what appears on their website, but I doubted it would actually happen. I felt that way because, among other considerations, Space Adventures didn't appear to have plans to build, purchase, or charter suborbital spacecraft.

Today, that may all have changed.

I got an announcement in my e-mail today that Space Adventures is partnering with Armadillo Aerospace. Armadillo has done rocketry work for NASA and the US Air Force, along with competing in several X-Prize moon lander competitions. However, their plans have always centered around developing the expertise and capabilities necessary to build a suborbital tourist spacecraft. This announcement is a major step toward that goal, because Armadillo will finally have a major source of funding.

It appears that Space Adventures will be to Armadillo Aerospace what Virgin Galactic is to Scaled Composites; the source of marketing and funding necessary to make tourist spacecraft a reality. And at a lower price point, this makes for very healthy competition. I won't be changing my bars below to reflect the lower price because Space Adventures and Armadillo haven't yet announced designs for the potential new spacecraft, making Virgin Galactic still the best bet. It will probably be at least five years before anything is even ready for a test flight.

With that said, this is still amazingly good news.

Trip to Space

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Solar Array

Progress: 6.47%  Power: 65W

Appendicitis!

So yeah, I've been suffering from a bout of appendicitis, had an emergency appendix extraction, and was out for a while, during which (of course) lots of fun space tourism news happened. Here's one of the highlights:

The next space tourist was announced! The founder of Cirque de Soleil, Guy Laliberté will become the first Canadian space tourist. In cooperation with Space Adventures, he will launch in a Soyuz vehicle toward the International Space Station in September (if all goes well). And in another first, he has dedicated his flight, in cooperation with the One Drop foundation, to raising awareness about the lack of clean water around the world.

Woo!

Trip to Space

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Solar Array

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The First Repeat Space Tourist Launches

That's right, in a world first, a paying passenger has traveled to space twice.

That passenger is Charles Simonyi, and he traveled to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. He launched on March 26 and arrived at the station on the 28th. So now, he has been in space eight days.

He of course payed his millions to do so to Space Adventures in their partnership with the Russian government. One of the ways Simonyi has been spending his time on the space station is using a HAM radio to communicate with amateur radio operators on the ground. That's right, if you're a HAM radio operator and are in the right place at the right time, you too can pick up transmissions from the first repeat space tourist!

Kinda makes me wish I knew someone who has one.

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Russia Announces No Joint Tourism After 2009

It seems they have made it official. The Russian Space Agency has announced that after 2009, they will not transport any more tourists to the International Space Station during their missions.

This is of no surprise, though, because the ISS will soon be operating with a crew of 6 instead of the current crew of 3. With the space shuttle out of service, the Russians are going to need all of the seating they can get to being up fresh crew members.

So what will this mean for Space Adventures, who has been arranging these visits? They will only be able to take two more tourists up before the deadline, but they have already planned for this. They arranged months ago for a private launch of a dedicated Soyuz vehicle after their usual access to the Soyuz missions has been terminated. So this is not the end of ISS tourism yet!

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Catch-Up: Sixth Space Tourist Launches

Okay, I admit that I knew about this story when it was happening, and I didn't post anything. Honestly, it was around the time that work started causing me headaches (it still is), and I was just too burnt-out and lazy to post it. If I hadn't been so lazy, I would have discovered early on that I was no longer getting my regular updates, but I still blame NBC. With that said:

On October 12th, Richard Garriott was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, thereby becoming the world's sixth space tourist. As all space tourists so far, Garriott achieved this feat through Space Adventures' agreement with the Russians to send tourists up to the space station for a tidy sum (currently about $35,000,000).

Garriott is actually on the board of Space Adventures, and shortly after returning from his week-long mission, he announced he was leaving his work as a developer for NCSoft (the makers of City of Heroes, among other games) to pursue interests related to his journey in space. So I have little doubt that we'll be hearing more from him.

Congratulations, Richard! As a successful video game developer and space tourist, you have lived the dreams of many a geek like me.

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Prepare for your flight!

I usually don't write a post just to talk about someone else's article, but Universe Today has a great article today on how to prepare for spaceflight. Universe Today is a great source for space and science news, and though they don't usually post about space tourism in specific, they tend to have an article or two on it per month.

Anywho, the particular article I'm talking about describes an event at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in which Former astronaut Dan Barry and Zero Gravity Corporation CEO and co-founder of Space Adventures Peter Diamandis gave several interesting and important pieces of advice to future space travelers. The most important to me is number four. Afterall, that's why you're there, right? Look up the word "Numinous" in the dictionary. And read the book Contact. That's right, not the movie, the book. Though the movie is great too. Do it! And vote! But not on a voting machine unless you're recording it!

That and other random commands brought to you today by Joe Space Tourist.

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Space Tourist Decides He Likes It

Does the name Charles Somonyi sound familiar? If it does, then you know that he is one of a very few space tourists. Specifically, he visited the International Space Station in 2007. And he decided he likes it... to the tune of $30 million, give or take $5 million or so.

That's right, he's going back! Next spring, a scant two years after his first space flight, he is going to board a Soyuz capsule headed toward the International Space Station, and in doing so become the first repeat space tourist. It seems he believes the cost it well worth the trip, which is good news for those of us waiting for... less expensive flights.

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Conflicting Space Adventures Comments Just a Misunderstanding

Well, it appears that the whole Space Adventures confusion has been just a big misunderstanding. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, I recommend reading through yesterday's post.

The misunderstanding is due to the fact that Space Adventures released two big announcements simultaneously. It turns out that the comment from Anatoly Perminov, the head of Roskosmos, most likely refers to Space Adventures' announcement about Sergey Brin becoming the next planned space tourist, and not about Space Adventures' use of the Soyuz capsule.

And who cleared it all up? Well, it was Jeff Foust of the Personal Spaceflight blog. I've mentioned New Voyage News in the past, but Personal Spaceflight is another great place to look for current and ongoing space tourism news updates. In fact, Mr. Foust called up Space Adventures personally to clear it all up. You can read his entire blog post here. In my book, that's extremely good journalism. Mr. Foust is clearly much more driven to provide good news than my lazy butt, but then I intended my site to be as much about voicing my opinions and chronicling my personal journey as about keeping track of space tourism news, so it's all good.

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Space Adventures Jumping the Gun?

So a funny thing happened the other day.

I usually watch all of the shuttle launches; it has kind of become a tradition. I haven't missed one since Return to Flight after the Columbia disaster. I also watch the shuttle landings, though less consistently than the launches. Then sometimes I leave the TV on while doing chores or whatnot while NASA TV shows replays and post-event press conferences.

During Saturday's post-landing press conference, one of the reporters asked a question about the recent Space Adventures announcement concerning their planned use of the Soyuz capsules for tourist flights. I was in the garage at the time hunting for a pair of pliers, so I missed the answer. Now I wish I hadn't.

It turns out that NASA wasn't consulted about the new plans. However, the agency doesn't seem too concerned about that either, despite the fact that they're planning on also using the Soyuz capsules to deliver astronauts and supplies to the space station between the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010 and the completion of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle in 2015. NASA's administrator, Mike Griffin, put it this way: "It is their system. They can fly it as they wish."

However, questions about Space Advenures' plans don't end there. Anatoly Perminov, the head of Roskosmos, the Russian Space Agency, released a statement on the agency's website claiming he was unaware of any such deal. However, in Space Adventures' official announcement, the quote provided by Alexey Krasnov from Roskosmos was less than vague: "We are very pleased to continue working with Space Adventures into the foreseeable future. This method for growing our commercial partnership with Space Adventures is beneficial for all parties. The Soyuz to be used for this mission shall be a specially manufactured craft, separate from the other Soyuz vehicles designated for the transportation of the ISS crews"

So will this relly go forward? Well, either this is just a series of silly miscommunications, or Space Adventures really has jumped the gun a bit. We'll see.

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Space Adventures Announces First Private ISS Space Flight

Okay, remember a week ago when I mentioned that Space Adventures was planning on releasing two big pieces of news? Well, those two pieces of news (the next space tourist and the future of Space Adventures' orbital flights) turn out to be quite closely related, and the latter is very exciting.

First off, the next announced space tourist that Space Adventures will send up will be Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, and his space flight is scheduled for 2011. He has made a payment of $5 million toward the total amount for the flight, in a new program called the "Orbital Mission Explorer's Circle" in which potential astronauts may make payments toward future spaceflights that are transferable to others. There are six founding members of this circle, but only Sergey Brin has been announced.

Wait, 2011? That's past the Russians' cutoff date for the transport of space tourists into orbit alongside cosmonauts, you say?

Well, in the extremely unlikely event that you actually said that, I will respond with the second piece of news. Space Adventures has announced that after cooperative tourists flights are cut off in 2010, they will be cooperating with the Russian Federal Space Agency to launch fully private flights to the International Space Station using the Russian Soyuz capsules. The first of these flights is to be in 2011, with potentially more to come. Each flight will take up two tourists, a pilot, and supplies for the space station.

Other more minor announcements include the planning for Space Adventures to ramp up the weightless parabolic flight operations of Zero-G (which they bought earlier this year) to include 10,000 passengers per year, and perhaps eventually 100,000 per year. Also, Space Adventures is looking into the possibility of partnering with one or more companies to offer suborbital spaceflights. Virgin Galactic was mentioned, but Space Adventures doesn't plan to make any specific announcements in this area until suborbital tourist flights are up and running.

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Space Adventures to make "Big Announcements"

Space Adventures Ltd, thus far the only company to successfully get tourists to space (via the Russian Soyuz launches), is set to make some big announcements on Wednesday, July 11.

One of these announcements will be the identity of their next space tourist. Speculation has already run rampant as to who this will be; the rumors have been that this will be someone highly recognizable, and not just another little-known millionaire. This piece of news seems to confirm that.

The other announcement will be about new orbital tourism services. It turns out that the Russians are planning to discontinue their work with Space Adventures to put people into space very soon. This is likely due to the greater need for the Soyuz capsules once the space shuttle is retired. So Space Adventures will need to find some other way to get people into space once that happens; that is likely what this announcement is about. Speculation is that Space Adventures is making a deal with Bigelow Aerospace to put people on the space hotel that they hope to have operational by 2012. This is due to the fact that Bigelow Aerospace seems to be the company that is third closest to getting tourists into space, short of Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures itself. Virgin Galactic is already selling tickets, but Bigelow Aerospace hasn't gotten that far yet, so partnering with other companies to facilitate sales, training, and launch would seem to be advantageous. Though, the further speculation is that SpaceX's manned Dragon capsules, currently under development, would be used to actually launch people to Bigelow's space hotel.

We'll know a lot more next Wednesday.

I should give an acknowledgment for this juicy piece of news. Normally, I am able to hunt down bits of information myself through press releases or media stories. In this case, however, another blog entitled New Voyage News seems to have somehow discovered this where nobody else had. I highly recommend the blog; they provide lot of running space tourism information, and are a great source of breaking news, as is evidenced by this story.

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Space Adventures acquires Zero Gravity

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I just got a new roommate, and I have a few other changes going on, so posting may be spotty for a few more days. Anywho, on to the news of the day!

Space Adventures Ltd. announced today that they have acquired Zero Gravity Corporation. Zero Gravity is the U.S. company that provides weightless parabolic flights to the general public at the cost of a few thousand dollars. This isn't altogether a huge shift, since Space Adventures already had a sizable stake in Zero Gravity, and the two companies share a co-founder, Peter Diamandis. Basically, this helps fill out Space Adventures' portfolio of, well, space adventures. Space Adventures Ltd, in case you are unaware, is the company that facilitates tourist trips to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz craft.

I've been tempted over the years to save some money and blow it on one of these weightless parabolic flights. So tempted. Stephen Hawking did this recently. But, as you are probably aware by now, I'm holding out for the real deal.

That's all for now!

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Space Adventures LTD

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days; I had this weird cold that hasn't been bad enough to keep me from working, but has been just annoying enough to keep me from doing much else. We still seem to be short on any interesting space tourism news, so I'll profile the next company on my list, Space Adventures Ltd.

Space Adventures is currently the only space tourism company actively getting tourists into space. It was founded in 1998 with the express goal of facilitating commercial human space travel. They accomplished that goal in 2001 when, in cooperation with the Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos, they sent Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, to the International Space Station.

These initial space flights cost $20,000,000, and consisted of six months of cosmonaut training, followed by launch on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft (usually along with a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut), topped off with a six-day stay on board the International Space Station. To date, there have been five of these space tourists, and two more are expected this year.

The price for one of these space flights has now risen to $30-40,000,000. However, they have recently added a spacewalk option to their list of services. For about an extra $15,000,000 and an extra month of training, tourists will be able to go on a 1.5 hour spacewalk and spend an extra two days aboard the station.

Those are not the only services they currently offer. Space Adventures also offers zero-gravity parabolic plane flights for about $5500, or $8000 if you want to go with an astronaut. Also, they will take you through cosmonaut training for anywhere between $8000-$60,000 depending on how in-depth you want the training to be.

Space Adventures also has some huge future plans. They are currently in the process of designing and creating a sub-orbital spacecraft of their own called the Explorer. They plan on offering sub-orbital flights on the Explorer from spaceports currently in the works in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. The flights are planned to cost a mere $102,000, the current lowest announced price for spaceflight by any company.

Along with their suborbital flights, Space Adventures is currently planning a circumlunar flight, tentatively called Deep Space Explorations Alpha. The announced date of this flight is 2009, although that date was announced a couple of years ago, and there has been little specific news on these plans since. This flight is planned to take two tourists on a journey around the far side of the moon and back to Earth. The two available seats are on sale for $100,000,000 each. So far, there haven't been any announced takers.

So that's about it! As of now, Space Adventures is definitely the most successful space tourism company out there. I look forward to seeing what the future holds, and whether their plans pan out.

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Space Tourism Companies

I mentioned in my first post that there are no less than five companies seriously working toward sending rich people (and perhaps an average joe) into space. I'll now back that up by giving a run-down and brief description of each of these companies, in order of how far along they are in their plans to send people to space.

Space Adventures Ltd
Everybody has heard of this one, but almost nobody knows its name. This is the company that currently partners with the Russian government to send people for week-long stays at the International Space Station. As of the beginning of 2007, this is the only Space Tourism company actively getting people into space. They also have plans to construct their own sub-orbital spacecraft, and long-term plans to send people to the moon.
Prices:
One week on the ISS: $30,000,000
Proposed sub-orbital flights: $102,000
Proposed trips to the moon: $100,000,000

Virgin Galactic
This company is partnering with Scaled Composites in the construction of SpaceShipTwo. SpaceShipTwo is currently under construction, and will begin flight testing this summer. Sub-orbital tourist flights are expected to begin in 2009. They are also planning ahead for orbital flights and beyond, but no specific details have been announced.
Prices:
Proposed sub-orbital flights: $200,000

SpaceX
SpaceX is currently constructing a prototype of Dragon, a Soyuz-like vehicle capable of taking 7 people into orbit. Dragon will first be tested in flight this year. Though SpaceX is primarily geared toward providing spaceflight services to governments, and have no announced plans for space tourism, I mention them here anyway because of:

Bigelow Aerospace
Bigelow Aerospace is more focused on creating structures in space than on getting people there. However, space hotels intended for tourists are among their future plans. Their structures are based on a unique inflatable design, and they have two prototypes in orbit right now. It has been suggested that SpaceX's Dragon capsules could be used to transport people to the proposed space hotels, but no specific plans have been announced.

EADS Astrium
This company actively develops systems that are being used in space, including the Colombus capsule that was launched yesterday aboard Atlantis toward the International Space Station. It is currently developing an aircraft somewhat similar to SpaceShipOne in that it is designed to launch six people into space from atmospheric flight. The difference is that SpaceShipOne uses a "mothership" to carry it up to launch altitude, while Astrium's craft is designed to be capable of both powered atmospheric and sub-orbital flight without the need of a mothership.

Blue Origin
Blue Origin is currently designing a unique sub-orbital craft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, with the intent to use it for space tourism. As of today, they have had one successful test... to 285 feet. This company is fairly hush-hush, so details about their specific plans are scarce.

Benson Space
Benson Space was founded by the founder of SpaceDev, the company that designed the hybrid rocket engine for SpaceShipOne. They plan to use the Dreamcatcher, a craft being designed by SpaceDev, to provide sub-orbital flights (and potentially future orbital flights) to tourists. They intend to launch the first sub-orbital tourism craft, and will have to beat Virgin Galactic's expected 2009 launches to do it.
Price:
Proposed sub-orbital flights: $200,000-$300,000

Constellation Services International
This company has rather ambitious plans to refurbish and upgrade used Soyuz capsules for orbital space tourism and cargo transport, as well as trips around the moon. Their proposed journey to the moon would include a week-long stay at the International Space Station. Few specific plans have been announced.

Excalibur Almaz
This company has plans to develop space tourism by means of modernized Russian TKS capsules (which have flown successfully unmanned) and plans derived from the Russian Almaz space stations, three of which were launched in the 70s.

So by my count, that's nine companies that will potentially be involved in space tourism! Many more than the five I promised. In future posts, I'll be profiling each of these companies (to the best of my amateurish abilities). So keep reading!